🏆🏆 What is your LARGEST pool accomplishment?

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tomatoshooter

Well-known member
WoodyJ said:
Scoring 35 against Willie Mosconi in a 14.1 game to 150 in 1965.

Best display of shotmaking???

Everyone loves a fearless shotmaker... What's the best display of shotmaking you've seen in person? When I was 20 and just starting to play pool, I watched the room owner in dead stroke. He put a red out in the middle the 5x10, cue ball on the...
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There were several dozen brand new Gold Crown tables and the tournament lasted days. Throughout the tournament people kept asking me again and again, "Do you know who you just beat!" Me, "Hell no, who's next!"

Then I got to play Mosconi in a game I'd never played before and was vaguely aware of the rules.

First we lag. I come 1/2" from the rail. He lands on the rail. My break.

I do a perfect break. Hit one of the back corner balls and the two corner balls each go to a rail and back where they started in the pack and the cue ball end up on the head rail. (I'd seen that in the Hustler movie so I practiced the break before going to the tournament.)

We trade safeties back and forth 5-6 times each. I finally make one and run seven and then rattle a ball in a pocket. The thread above explains the rest.

After that I got a driver's license, a car, a real job as a bagboy/checker in a grocery store and discovered girls.

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I laid off pool pretty much completely for 40 years until my wife and I moved into the town where we live now. The first night here we went to the local bar a half mile away to get something to eat at the attached restaurant on the other side. In order to go to the bathroom my wife had to walk past the pool table in the bar. Wife comes back madder that a wet hen and says the guys playing pool insulted her and said she couldn't repeat what they said due to the language they used. Wife says, "Didn't you say you used to shoot pool when you were a kid -- go give those guys a comeuppance!"

Ar-g-g-g-g, I hadn't picked up a stick in decades. Right shoulder is locked up so bad with osteoarthritis that I can barely move it and can't raise my arm higher than my heart without it hurting bad (I hadn't been able to drive a stick shift for years). I go warm up on the second table the place has in the back. Wow I can make two balls in a row if I'm lucky!

The A-holes finish skinning the mark they were playing for $20/game on the challenge table (with a whole lot of blatant sharking going on for their part). So I put up my quarter to challenge them. I ask them politely to apologize to my wife. Ha, ha, ha grandpa. Me: O.K. guess I'm going to have to make it my mission in life to take your stupid challenge table away from you whenever I see you playing. Ha, ha, ha, they say again -- we'll never apologize.

Me: You guys are just big fish in a tiny little pond get over yourselves. After that first night I found out that pool was the best therapy for my shoulder. Then I started playing regularly again and made it my mission to tear the A-holes a new A-hole whenever I saw their cars parked outside of the place. Nothing sweeter than listening to them curse to the high heavens and (one of them) banging his cue against the table as hard as he could when he lost.

When I went there for breakfast one morning the waitress said that she saw me hold the challenge table from 6PM on a Sat. night until they closed at 2AM. She'd never seen that before. Got to where when I put up my quarter on the challenge table people would grab their quarters/markers (ahead of me) off the table and exclaim, "I'm not paying for that guy's practice time anymore."
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I love the idea of you driving by, seeing their car, and having to stop and whip them again.

"Daughter, you just went into labor, we've got a couple of hours. Just wait in the car and I'll get you to the hospital in a bit."
 
Fatboy

Fatboy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I added this to my OP in this thread:

Thanks to AZB the Fatboy thing took off, thanks to all the people who have read and respond or just read my posts. I hope I helped out

I wrote this the stuff above in a hurry. AZB is what really launched “Fatboy” and all the people here who have read what I wrote, opinions shared, they get the credit for creating Fatboy-without AZB it wouldn’t have happened. I don’t do FB, where i’m certain I could blow it up bigger-not my goal. I just wanted to do fun stuff for pool-read my first posts from years ago. The goal isn’t to make Fatboy the biggest possible. It’s to help people and hopefully put a smiles on peoples faces or enjoy whatever.

I do my best. I don’t know it all, but I’ve been around. One thing I’ve never done in my life as Fatboy or Eric is bullshit or guess. If I say something it’s based on what I can remember or know. I never guess, I don’t embellish and if I don’t know the answer I’m first to admit I just don’t know. I have always been honest and accurate with all my posts. That’s me personally. Fatboy isn’t a character, it’s a nickname for Eric Petersen life long pool junkie/degen

Thx again

Eric 😀
 
W

WoodyJ

Sacred Cow=Best Hamburger
Gold Member
Silver Member
tomatoshooter said:
I love the idea of you driving by, seeing their car, and having to stop and whip them again.

"Daughter, you just went into labor, we've got a couple of hours. Just wait in the car and I'll get you to the hospital in a bit."
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At first they said: "You're not from around here. Get the F' out of here. Who gives a $hit about you or you wife!"

Me: Every time I go to my post office box just down the street or pretty much anywhere else, I have to drive by here. You haven't seen the last of me by far.

And, when we do cross paths again we can always either do things the easy way (you guys respect me and my wife) or we can do it the hard way (I take your challenge table away from you and you can play me all night long trying to get it back -- and if you guys quit playing me and wait for me to leave I'll stay here all night practicing on "your" table until someone else comes along to challenge me). They always chose the hard way and I loved it -- because.

It was great physical therapy for my shoulders and a well needed emotional release at the time.

I moved on to play in a local league and tournaments in Sacramento. Haven't played pool at the "Club" down the street for well over a decade (though we still occasionally go there for breakfast). If I ever do run in to any of the A-holes again I'll be sure and thank them for getting me back to playing pool again. Also, I never would have started going to watch events like Mosconi Cup, US 9-ball open, Derby City Classic, ...

Life's good when you are retired, have your own table at home and can play pool when and wherever you want with good friends. 😎

Edit: ^^^^^^^^^^ the above sentence is what I consider my largest pool accomplishment -- now having lots of fun playing and watching.
 
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C

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Bigkat said:
In 2017, I won a citywide 9 ball tournament in Columbia, SC. It was handicapped. There were a few road players etc...A former pro dropped by.. I forgot the scale but a strong road player was a 10, I was an 8 (probably fourth highest ranked player in the tournament). If he and I played he had to give me the last two. Anyway he lost in the earlier rounds and I WENT UNDEFEATED. 🙌🏾🙌🏾🏆🏆🏆 I played a woman in the finals who played rather sporty 💡 I was spotting her something like the last four. I believe it was a race to 5 games. I lost the first game until it dawned on me I'm not making any balls EVER. I'M PLAYING SAFE, OR LEAVING HER LONG AND ON THE RAIL ,GETTING BALL IN HAND AND THEN RUNNING OUT🙌🏾🙌🏾😎😎... (I won about $300 & a dude kinda knew me 😉 a purchase me in the Calcutta and he won about 300 and he gave me half of that 👍🏾👍🏾) WHAT'S YOURS?? 👀
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For me, that’s an easy one. It would be managing to keep a very nice, clean and well respected non-alcoholic pool room located in the middle of nowhere, open for the past 25-1/2 years.

I could not have done it without a food operation that brings in 90+ percent of our revenue, incredible and awesome loyal employees and of course our loyal longtime customers, both our regular diners that support our grill but never play pool, along with our pool junkies who love the game just as I do.
 
jay helfert

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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Silver Member
ChrisinNC said:
For me, that’s an easy one. It would be managing to keep a very nice, clean and well respected non-alcoholic pool room located in the middle of nowhere, open for the past 25-1/2 years.

I could not have done it without a food operation that brings in 90+ percent of our revenue, incredible and awesome loyal employees and of course our loyal longtime customers, both our regular diners that support our grill but never play pool, along with our pool junkies who love the game just as I do.
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Bingo! Now that's an accomplishment. I was involved in running four rooms over the course of 22 years and never longer than six years in any of them. I did run over 200 pool tournaments though over the course of thirty plus years.
 
jay helfert

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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The two things that come to mind for me are number one winning the San Francisco Bar Table Championship. I faced a field of 32 league champions and was the only outsider who got invited to play. Definitely my biggest win.

The second thing was when I was playing a guy in my poolroom in Bakersfield in the mid 70's. I was using my Gina with my name in the butt. I took a break and went to use the restroom, leaving my cue on the table (several of my friends were there watching us play - $$). When I came back the guy had unscrewed his cue and put it away. I asked him what he was doing and he said "I didn't know you were Jay Helfert. I can't play you." He had seen my name on my cue. That's when I realized I had a pretty big rep in the San Joaquin Valley of California. I had beaten all comers in the area for a few years by then.
 
rexus31

rexus31

AzB Silver Member
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Let's see...mid 90's (before I quit for 15 years) I played in an event here is Los Angeles dubbed the Big Dog Tournament at Charles Billiards in Glendale. The format was race to two, double elimination, winner break, no handicap, 64 Player Field.. Jerry the Dentist (RIP) knocked me to the B Side the match before the Hot Seat. I wound up getting revenge, beating Jerry in the B Side Final. Hill-Hill (Race to 5) in the Final, my opponent slops the 9B in 4 rails. Oh well. 2nd place paid $1,200 which was a pretty decent score back then. I also finished 7th in the Tad Cup (128 Player Field) about 6 or 7 years ago; the only time I played in that event. I've also cashed in a couple of the Mezz West State Tour events and took Chris Reinhold to the hill (lost) in one of the events which was probably one of the most exciting matches I've ever played. I think we each had 5 or 6 break and runs in the match, just battling it out. That was fun. All the local tournament wins and the regional cash outs aside, I'd say the most memorable accomplishment in pool are the friendships I've forged along the way. Those are priceless.
 
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Black-Balled

Black-Balled

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
ChrisinNC said:
For me, that’s an easy one. It would be managing to keep a very nice, clean and well respected non-alcoholic pool room located in the middle of nowhere, open for the past 25-1/2 years.

I could not have done it without a food operation that brings in 90+ percent of our revenue, incredible and awesome loyal employees and of course our loyal longtime customers, both our regular diners that support our grill but never play pool, along with our pool junkies who love the game just as I do.
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Don't forget your own contributions too.

Your room is glorious by all measures.
 
ShootingArts

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
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I guess never a late payment. With the boom and bust of the oilfield my business went very soft a few times in the seventies and eighties. I was able to take all my earnings from playing pool for three or four months at a time and pay the mortgages on my home and commercial property on time along with all my bills. Back then I could make as much playing pool as working but it took the fun out of pool knowing I needed to meet a nut every day before I went to bed.

A knifemaker I knew, one of the very best, said the same thing when I asked him why he kept his day job as an iron worker and kept a six month or year backlog making knives another fifty or sixty hours a week. He said he loved making knives but it took all the joy out of it when he had to do it every day feel like it or not when he had went full time years before.

Hu
 
arnaldo

arnaldo

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My biggest (and most personally rewarding) accomplishment is maintaining a deep, delightful, and unceasing passion for our beloved sport for 70 years after getting hopelessly addicted to it in 1952. I started out as a 16 year-old rack boy in a NYC neighborhood room and was getting coached in Straight Pool during off-hours by the room's owner, Paddy McGown (elder relative of Frank, also a 14.1 master).

Paddy, born in 1890, in Rochester, NY had the unique honor at age 21 of playing his friend, Jerome Keogh in one of the first city-wide games of Straight Pool ever played. Jerry had just invented the game the year before, in 1910. Paddy became quite skilled at it and even played a young Mosconi several times in the early 1930s in tri-state regional events (NY, NJ, PA) -- all of them won by Willie.

I like to think that my enduring passion for the sport, and so many years of encouraging (and coaching) literally thousands of players wherever I've lived, has had the effect -- like a stone dropped into a lake -- of widely rippling out a similar passion and skill-quest to many generations of the lives of the men and women "students" and their progeny.

Arnaldo ~ an old Chinese proverb says: "When you teach, you learn."
 
PoolBum

PoolBum

Ace in the side.
Silver Member
Konrad said:
Well he was shooting the 9. And you made a point to be nice and close. I would’ve quit too sharky. Lol. Idk! That’s just what came to mind when I read it Bum….
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You'd think it was something like that, but no. I was at the table chalking my tip, and it was squeaky because it was a hard tip.

He stood up and said "I can't take that sound anymore," paid me, and quit.
 
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